Brad Finstad, Minnesota's cut-and-paste congressman

The footballer Victor Anichebe was widely ridiculed back in 2016 when he posted a tweet on Twitter following his Sunderland team’s 1-0 defeat to West Ham which showed a decidedly cut-and-paste approach to his social media strategy.

“Can you tweet something like…Unbelievable support yesterday and great effort by the lads! Hard result to take! But we go again!,” he wrote enthusiastically. And while the tone and optimism can’t be faulted, the first five words of the tweet – presumably texted or emailed to him by a member of his club’s social media team team – did rather indicate they had been scripted for him. The tweet was quickly deleted, and Anichebe left the club the following season for the evocatively-titled Beijing Enterprises Group.

Still, Anichebe was a footballer. Brad Finstad is a 49-year-old member of the US House of Representatives from Minnesota’s 1st district – and he has just made exactly the same embarrassing error.

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Finstad this week posted on X a statement thanking Donald Trump for his efforts in the state following another killing of a protester by the trigger-happy MAGA militia ICE. It began: “Hi Brad. I am sending you a post on socials regarding the trump walz [sic] conversation, this has been approved by staff. Will be using the picture attached and caption for all three platforms.”

The post continued: “Caption: Thank you, President Trump and Governor Walz. I am pleased to see these recent developments. The only way to a resolution is through productive conversations. Public safety shouldn’t be partisan, and cooperation is how we deliver real results for our communities. Real leadership means putting law and order above politics.”

The post was deleted three minutes after posting with the removal of the message from his seniors. Finstad, a MAGA loyalist who received Trump’s endorsement for reelection last year, has so far declined to comment on his faux pas. Alas, were he to need to go into hiding, Beijing Enterprises Group was dissolved in March 2023.